Remakes are hardly new, but Hollywood is increasingly impatient about cinematic do-overs.
The recent “Mean Girls” updated the 2004 comedy, but at least it added musical numbers to the Burn Book formula.
“The Strangers: Part 1,” now on Blu-ray, reboots the 2008 sleeper film for a “new” generation. This time, the sequels are baked into the title, but the new tale doesn’t dramatically differ from the source material.
It’s like the upcoming “Alien: Romulus” sequel baldly stealing the original movie’s tag line – “In Space, No One Can Hear You Scream.” “Chapter 1” is generic but rarely dull, the kind of horror that holds you over until better, more imaginative fare arrives.
Maya and Ryan (Madelaine Petsch, Froy Gutierrez) are celebrating their fifth anniversary – not of marriage, mind you – when their car breaks down in Microscopic Small Town USA.
They get stares from the local, natch. They also suspect foul play when their new-ish car stops working. They make the best of it by renting a rustic cabin for the night.
Heck, this might be a happy accident. Think again.
Knock knock.
“Is Tamara there?” asks a poorly lit stranger on the property’s front porch. She’s not, but the female stranger won’t take that for an answer.
RELATED: A SECOND TAKE – ‘THE STRANGERS – CHAPTER 1’
The rest goes down as expected, with masked figures lurking about the property with bad intentions. One difference? Maya and Ryan are smitten kittens, and that sweetness gives depth to the horrors to come.
It’s impossible not to root for their survival.
A sense of aching familiarity stains “The Strangers: Chapter 1.”
At least the tepid “Wrong Turn” reboot introduced radical new elements to the saga. This “Strangers” update traces the original with shocking fidelity. Heck, the creepy stranger at the door even asks for the same unseen person.
Where IS that Tamara anyway? That’s not an Easter Egg. It’s just weak.
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Director Renny Harlin, who hasn’t helmed a major project since 1999’s “Deep Blue Sea,” conducts the reboot with an air of efficiency. Unusual camera angles? Check! Solid genre performances? Check! Horror tropes so familiar they’re like members of our extended family?
Triple check.
One example? The protagonists visit “Small Town ‘merica” only to find people who greet them with shifty eyes and shiftier scowls. The couple, in turn, instantly distrusts the locals.
The Blu-ray edition features two featurettes tied to the saga. The first, “Reimagining a Classic: Making “The Strangers – Chapter 1” offers clues about the rest of the trilogy. It’s a primer on Hollywood in 2024, obsessed with both remakes and sequels, although the creative team appears fully invested in the story’s lore.
The commentary suggests the most frightening element of the “Strangers” mythology could be discarded in Chapters 2 and 3 – we may learn more about these ghouls than what’s shared in the original story or reboot.
We’re also bombarded with plot details, one of the worst tropes of any Blu-ray extra. We’ve already seen the movie, gang and went so far as to add it to our film collection. We know what happens scene by scene.
“A Hostile Environment: The Visual Design of “The Strangers – Chapter 1” lets movie fans geek out over production design details. We’re invited into Harlin’s creative process and the choices he made during the shoot.
Given his considerable resume, including “Die Hard 2” and “Cliffhanger,” that’s a treat.
The home video release also include audio commentary with producer Courtney Solomon and Petsch.
HiT or Miss: “The Strangers: Chapter 1” is a slick, effective and hopelessly predictable reboot.
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